Report: Man City plan Irons defender approach

Manchester City are reportedly lining up a formal approach for Reece Oxford.

According to the Daily Mail’s Ian Ladyman “the Champions League semi-finalists are on the look-out for top English talent and the 17–year-old centre half is high on their list of considerations for next season.”

Ladyman claims City can offer Champions League football – which would hardly be an immediate prospect though – plus the lure of playing at a club managed from next season by esteemed Spanish coach Pep Guardiola.

However, he reports that earlier this season, David Sullivan told Sportsmail that he would everything in his power to keep Oxford.

Sullivan said: ‘We are optimistic he will be here for a long time. We will keep him. He is an exceptional talent. He is the highest paid 17-year-old in the history of the club.

‘He signed for two years at the age of 17 and that’s the maximum length allowed for a player of that age.

‘That can make a club that has invested in and developed a player very vulnerable and it can make you worry.’

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"
Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

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6 comments on “Report: Man City plan Irons defender approach”

The papers are getting ready to be busy over the summer.I expect every single one of our players will be linked to another club by the time August comes round.
Loved the Joe Cole interview with Merse on Sky.Anyone who ain’t seen it should give it a watch,really good 😉

I watched it Billy,really good show.Bilic would have got the best out of Joe second time round.Cole even said himself Hippos football didn’t suit him but who knows what would have happened if Slav had been the manager.
Respect his points,haha 🙂

Under Slav’s leadership each player increased his market value, under Hippo’s leadership nobody wanted our players, not even for free… lol
As Billy says, I expect our players will be linked to other clubs, but West Ham are no longer a warehouse sale, but a jewelry store and a magnet for class players… The sign in the lobby says “NOT FOR SALE”. 😉

He might get more money at City or Chelsea, but he won’t get any more playing time. City have Kompany, Mangala and Otamendi, and whilst the last two haven’t exactly set the world alight, at 30-40m each, I can’t see City just letting them sit on the bench. Demichelis might leave and be replaced, possibly by John Stones, but as good as Oxford is, he’s not at Stones’ level yet so will be at the back of the queue up there.

Conte will be looking for new defenders and might well be looking to Italy as they’ll be players he knows and has working relationships with already. The fact we’ve just signed that Portuguese lad from them on the basis he feels he has a better chance of first team football with us says everything you need to know about their youth policy (which is baffling considering how well their youth teams do).

He’s only just turned seventeen which is why I don’t think loans are an option yet. But they should be the way to go. As much as it pains me to say it, the way the spuds managed Harry Kane’s development is the way I think most young players should be managed. There will always be exceptions of course, like Marcus Rashford, and Reece Oxford might well be another, but if he isn’t, I think he could do an awful lot worse than to follow the example of Reece Burke.